Association between low activity serotonin transporter promoter genotype and early onset alcoholism with habitual impulsive violent behavior (original) (raw)

Molecular Psychiatry volume 4, pages 385–388 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

A common 44-base pair insertion/deletion polymorphism in the promoter region of the human serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene has been observed to be associated with affective illness and anxiety-related traits. This biallelic functional polymorphism, designated long (L) and short (S), affects 5-HTT gene expression since the S promoter is less active than the L promoter. Since there is strong evidence of a disturbance in brain serotonergic transmission among antisocial, impulsive, and violent type 2 alcoholic subjects, we decided to test the hypothesis that the frequency of the S allele, which is associated with reduced 5-HTT gene expression, is higher among habitually violent type 2 alcoholics when compared with race and gender-matched healthy controls and non-violent late-onset (type 1) alcoholics. The 5-HTT promoter genotype was determined by a PCR-based method in 114 late onset (type 1) non-violent alcoholics, 51 impulsive violent recidivistic offenders with early onset alcoholism (type 2), and 54 healthy controls. All index subjects and controls were white Caucasian males of Finnish origin. The S allele frequency was higher among type 2 alcoholics compared with type 1 alcoholics (χ2 = 4.86, P = 0.028) and healthy controls (χ2 = 8.24, P = 0.004). The odds ratio for SS genotype vs LL genotype was 3.90, 95% Cl 1.37–11.11, P = 0.011 when type 2 alcoholics were compared with healthy controls. The results suggest that the 5-HTT ‘S’ promoter polymorphism is associated with an increased risk for early onset alcoholism associated with antisocial personality disorder and impulsive, habitually violent behavior.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic Psychiatry, University of Kuopio, Niuvanniemi Hospital, Kuopio, 70240, Finland
    T Hallikainen & J Tiihonen
  2. Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, USA
    T Saito & H M Lachman
  3. Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, New York, USA
    J Volavka
  4. Department of Pharmacology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
    T Pohjalainen & E Syvälahti
  5. Department of Community Health and General Practice, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland
    O-P Ryynänen & J Kauhanen
  6. Department of Psychiatry, Turku University Central Hospital, Turku, Finland
    J Hietala
  7. Department of Clinical Physiology, Kuopio University Hospital, Finland
    J Tiihonen

Authors

  1. T Hallikainen
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  2. T Saito
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  3. H M Lachman
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  4. J Volavka
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  5. T Pohjalainen
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  6. O-P Ryynänen
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  7. J Kauhanen
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  8. E Syvälahti
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  9. J Hietala
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  10. J Tiihonen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence toJ Tiihonen.

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Hallikainen, T., Saito, T., Lachman, H. et al. Association between low activity serotonin transporter promoter genotype and early onset alcoholism with habitual impulsive violent behavior.Mol Psychiatry 4, 385–388 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4000526

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